The Chesterfield football history resource

The elder brother of Chesterfield’s Freddie, Tommy Capel signed pro forms for
Manchester City in April 1946 but played only nine times in 18 months before
his transfer to Chesterfield. He arrived in October 1947 with Peter Robinson and
a wedge of cash in an exchange deal that saw Billy Linacre go to Maine Road,
the first in a number of transfer deals between Chesterfield and City in the
years just after the war.

Many older fans still rate Tommy as the best player
they’ve seen in a Chesterfield shirt. Direct
and bustling, with clever ball control, he also had elements of the showman to
his game that delighted Spireite fans as much as his prolific scoring.

Chesterfield appeared to be careless with quality
forwards around this time, and Tommy was one of many good ones sold on as,
according to the Chairman, the gates alone were incapable of sustaining Second
Division football. Ironically, the sale
of Capel and the likes of Harold Roberts, Chris Marron and Hugh McJarrow itself
led directly to relegation in 1951, as replacements of a lesser calibre could
not score enough goals to keep the club up.

Nottingham Forest recruited Tommy for a club-record
£14,000 fee in November 1949, shortly after dropping into division three (south)
and Capel’s goals helped propel them back into the second division at the first
attempt. He enjoyed a prolific season at Coventry in 1954-5 and joined Halifax
Town a year later, thus completing the (then) comparatively rare feat of
playing for clubs in all four divisions of the Football League.

Tommy settled locally after pro football, seeing out
his playing days with Heanor Town and Sutton Town.